“All through the summer, I had quite a few. A lot of them wanted to camp here to wait until the winter rate went down, so they could find something affordable,” Jack said. “Most of the stuff all through the summer was like $800-900 for a one bedroom, and then it went up from there, and they couldn’t afford that.”

Among those looking for a spot, he said the South Okanagan Similkameen Brain Injury Society has used his campsite for three or four people — including one group of two and one single person — while they searched for something more permanent.

“The last person that they brought to me, they got him a place to stay, and then they said, if we need your help, we’ll come and we’ll bring somebody out,” he said.

Jack typically only offers a daily rate, but he said people couldn’t afford to spend a full month at his daily rate.

“So I said, this is what I’ll do for you: I’ll do it by the month,” he said.

Jack said this is the first year he’s seen people coming to him as a solution — temporary or otherwise — for their housing issues.

“It never came up in the past; it just came up this year,” he said. “The other campgrounds, during the summer, they charge by the day, and there’s no monthly rental.”

Jack said one couple is still living on the campground, as they still haven’t managed to find a place.

“They might stay all winter, because they can’t afford to rent any houses, because the housing, the lowest one was $1,700 a month,” he said, referring to a two-bedroom rate.

In the past week, the Western News has spoken to two families who have had to camp out in the past, or continue to camp out in lieu of a bricks and mortar home. One of those families is still camping out in the Carmi hill area, while another family has found a home in Peachland.

In fact, the latter family said they camped out at Jack’s campground along Green Mountain Road, about a kilometre from the Okanagan River Channel.

But Brown-Alvord wasn’t the only family to take advantage of his campground.

“There were some ladies from Saskatchewan that were working out here and they didn’t have no place to stay, they couldn’t afford nothing,” Jack said. “They rented by the month, $400 a month for their tents.”